Appropriation as a process of allegory in contemporary art

Abstract

In this article, the authors seek to understand how Appropriation is established, in contemporary art, as a process of the concept of Allegory formulated by Walter Benjamin. The text seeks to show that the elaboration of the term appropriation, in the second half of the 20th century, already found its foundations in the philosopher who found arguments in the literary analysis of the German Baroque for arguments to understand and support modernism in the visual arts. In addition to discussing the formulation of both concepts, the text also presents a brief reading based on the allegorical theory of three works by artists Adriana Varejão, Manoel Veiga and Ai Weiwei.